Saturday, December 09, 2006

Irwin Cotler defends Salah Choudhury (Statement to the Canadian Parliament)

The Canadian Member of Parliament Irwin Cotler, former Minister of Justice and Attorney-General during the last Liberal government, is a heroic figure of international human rights law. As his Wikipedia mini-bio sums up this dimension of his career:

Dr. Irwin Cotler has served on the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and its sub-Committee on Human Rights and International Development, as well as on the Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights. In 2000, Dr. Cotler was appointed special advisor to the Minister of Foreign Affairs on the International Criminal Court.

Saad Ibrahim, an Egyptian democracy activist imprisoned by the Egyptian government, was represented by Cotler and acquitted in 2003. He acted as counsel to Maher Arar during part of Arar's imprisonment and supported demands for a public inquiry. He has also defended both Palestinians and Israelis against their own governments, and participated in a minor role in the Camp David peace agreement between Israel and Egypt.

Cotler has now undertaken to defend the Bangladeshi journalist Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury (see also here & here & here & here & here). Choudhury has faced years of persecution, including physical attacks and death threats as well as criminal prosecution, for his 'crimes' of criticizing Islamist radicalism and advocating reconciliation with Christians, Jews, and Israel. He is now on trial facing a trumped-up charge of treason with a possible death penalty.

On December 7, 2006 Cotler made this statement to the Canadian Parliament about Choudhury and his case.--------------------

Mr. Speaker, Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury, a Muslim Bangladesh journalist and editor of a daily Bangladesh publication, is standing trial on charges of treason, sedition and blasphemy for promoting Muslim, Christian and Jewish dialogue, peace with Israel and seeking to attend a conference in Israel for the promotion of peace.

Mr. Choudhury has also been personally beaten, his life threatened and his office vandalized while none of the perpetrators have been brought to justice and a former Bangladesh home minister has indicated that there is no basis for the charges.

As counsel for Mr. Choudhury and as one who, while as minister of justice, was engaged in a joint Canada-Bangladesh rule of law project, I call upon the Bangladesh authorities to respect the rule of law, to review and, as appears just and appropriate, to drop the charges while working to apprehend those who have violated Mr. Choudhury's rights.-------L'hon. Irwin Cotler (Mont-Royal, Lib.):

=> Along with the Writers in Prison Committee of International PEN and others, I once again strongly urge people to spread the word about this case and to write to the Bangladeshi govenment, officials of their own government, and/or human rights organizations expressing their concern. (For some details, see here.)

This case is still not getting nearly the attention that it deserves. Do we believe in freedom of expression or don't we? If we do, then as Eric Alterman put it back in October, "how about a little noise about Salah Choudhury?"

--Jeff Weintraub

(P.S. Of course, given the present condition of public discourse on such matters, the first and only thing that some people will notice is that Cotler is Jewish and a Zionist--that is, he supports Israel's right to exist--and for some people this is enough to be a thought-stopper. Yes, it is well known that the promotion of "human rights and democracy " is all part of a Jewish plot, as the esteemed statesman Mahathir Mohamad, the former long-time Prime Minister of Malaysia, famously pointed out a few years ago. But if that's right, then I must confess that I don't see this as much cause for embarrassment.)

About Me

Jeff Weintraub is a social & political theorist, political sociologist, and democratic socialist who has been teaching most recently at the University of Pennsylvania, Bryn Mawr College, and the New School for Social Research, He was a Visiting Scholar at the Center for European Studies at Harvard University in 2015-2016 and a Research Associate at the Graduate School of Social Work and Social Research, Bryn Mawr College.
(Also an Affiliated Professor with the University of Haifa in Israel & an opponent of academic blacklists.)